Hydraulic hopper discharge apparatus



HYDRAULIC HOPPER DISCHARGE PPARATUS Filed Nov. 20, 1948 7 INVENTOR.

30 23 4 PH/L/P B s/K 44 g 4 BY 9 3f@ o 44 3,2 30 ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 18, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT f OFFICE HYDRAULIC HOPPER DISCHARGE APPARATUS Philip B. Silk, London,

Allen-Sherman-Hofi Company,

England, assigner to The Philadelphia,

Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application November 2o, 194s, serial No. sims (Cl. 11o-171) 8 Claims.

material down the feed plate to the discharge opening. In this form of apparatus ak properly controlled fiow of material from the hopper is attained, but splashing of the water is liable to occur, particularly if the jet encounters a large lump of material. When, as in the case of a hopper below a pulverized fuel furnace provided converge downwardly toward the bottom of the furnace chamber to an opening 3 which extends between the furnace chamber side walls (not at its bottom with an opening of substantial size,

the hopper walls in operation attain a substantial temperature, the walls, if subject to splashing, are liable to suffer damage. An object of the invention is the provision of improved hopper discharge apparatus in which splashing of the hopper walls is lessenedl or avoided.

The present invention includes hydraulic hop'4 per discharge apparatus provided with means arranged to cause a liquid jet iiow in a direction across a region of hopper bottom floor toward means in the neighborhood of an outlet from the hopper for turning jet liquid iiow transversely with respect to the outlet.

The invention also includes hydraulic hopper discharge apparatus comprising means arranged to cause a liquid jet flow in a direction toward the neighborhood of an outlet from the hopper and adapted to effect removal of material from a part of the hopper adjacent the outlet and further means arranged to cause a further liquid jet flow in a direction toward the neighborhood of the outlet and adapted to effect removal of material from a part of the hopper remote from the outlet.

The invention will now be described in one form by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an ash hopper arranged below the water cooled bottom of a pul verized fuel red furnace, in a section through an ash discharge outlet from the hopper, and

two discharge nozzles, on the line I-I of Fig. 2; and

Figs. 2 and 3 are sectional views on the lines 2-2 and 3--3 respectively of Fig. l of portions of the hopper bottom including the ash discharge outlet.

Referring to the drawings, 'I of a pulverized fuel fired front and rear walls furnace chamber 2 shown) and whose lateral dimension is many times the distance between the walls I at the opening. Ash resulting from combustion of pul verized fuel in the furnace chamber falls through the opening 3 into an ash hopper 4, whose lateral dimension is also larger than its dimension from front to rear and which is arranged for intermittent discharge of collected ash through a number, say ve, of discharge outlets 5 formed at ythe bottom of the front wall y6 of the hopper. The

hopper front wall 6, rear wall l opposite thereto, and side walls (not shown) are lined with refractory tiles. The' floor of the hopper consists of iirebricks and is formed as a rear horizontal floor surface 8 extending from the rear Wall l to slightly more than half-way toward the front wall 6, and a front horizontal iioor surface 9 lower than the rear iioor surface 8.

Below the outlets and in front of the hopper extends a sluiceway Ill for the reception of ash discharged from the hopper and extending over the sluiceway and around each discharge outlet 5 is a casing II provided at its front with an access door I2. Within each casing is an air seal door I3, shown byl full lines in the open and by dotted lines in the closed position in Fig. 1, which is hinged adjacent its upper end and arranged to close the discharge outlet by contacting at its lower end with the bottom of a chute I4 leading from the front edge of the front iioor surface 9 to the sluiceway III, and by contacting at its side edges with vertical plates I5 at either side of the chute. For opening and shutting the air seal door a handle (not shown) is provided outside the casing and suitably linked to the door. A sizing grid I6 is provided to prevent very large pieces of clinA er from falling into the sluiceway.

Extending across the width of the hopper is a transverse member 20 wider than the thickness of the hopper front wall 6 and forming the roof of each of the discharge outlets 5. The transverse member has at its rear end an upstanding iiange 2l whose upper edge is at the lower edge of a rearwardly inclined face 22 of the wall re fractory, and a depending ange 23 from which baille plate 24 is hingedly supported behind each discharge outlet. The lower edge of the bailie plate is horizontal and close tov the oor when the plate is in the vertical position and the side edges are straight and symmetrically converge downwardly. The bale plate is provided with a lug 25 by which it may be raised forwardly when 3 desired for the purpose of inspecting the hopper oor or breaking up clinker formation thereon. A metal rod 26 slidable in a sleeve 21 set in the front wall 6 is provided to prevent the balile plate swinging forwardly under the pressure of ash upon its rear f acewrf 1 f v Forming each side' of .each passage through the wall 3 to the outlets 5 and extending between the floor and the transverse member 20 is a vertical defiecting plate 3U of cylindrically curved form, whose concave surface is formed as a circular arc in horizontal cross-section subtending an angle of slightly more than 90. Each deiiecting plate is arranged with -itsvertical front or outlet edge in close proximity to the discharge outlet and the vertical rear or inlet edge behind and laterally outwardly of the'dis'charge outlet, and so that the tangent to the arcuate inner surface at the front edgel-is parallel to the hopper front wall. Each deflecting plate is provided with suitable extensions (not shown) by which it may be bolted to the metal of the hopper front wall, and is backed by refractory of the hopper front wall, which is thicker below the transverse member than above it. 1

Refractory blocks 3| arranged in the hopper adjacent the hopper front wall below the transverse member 20 provide adjacent each deecting plate a plane surface 32 steeply inclined and extending rearwardly and laterally away in relation to the discharge outlet from the rear edge of the deecting plate.

For feeding ash from the hopper through the discharge outlets, two pairs of nozzles are provided in connection with each discharge outlet. The front pair 33 of these nozzles is located near the front floor surface 9 at the rear thereof, and the rear pair 34 is located near the rear floor surface at the rear thereof. The two front nozzles 33 are arranged on the ends of respective branch pipes 35 which rest in respective metal pipe ways 36 traversing longitudinally, some of the bricks of the rear floor surface. The branch pipes 35 receive water from Ya feed pipe 31 outside the hopper through .connections 38, removal of which enables the branch pipes to be withdrawn if desired. The two rear nozzles'34 are arranged on the ends'of respective branch pipes 39 projecting through respective metal pipe ways 49 extending through the hopper rear wall 1, and vreceive water from a feed pipe 4I outside the hopper through connections 42, removal of which enables the branch pipes'39 to be withdrawn if desired. Above the level of the rear nozzles 34 the hopper rear wall is formed with a short forwardly sloping portion 43` The nozzles of each pair are located at equal distances on opposite sides of a central vertical longitudinal plane through the corresponding discharge outlet and each nozzle is arranged. to direct in operation a jet of Water substantially horizontally in a direction toward the defiecting plate nearer thereto, and so that should the jet encounter no ash substantially all or most of the water of the jet will impinge uponthe arcuate inner surface thereof, and so that not'only the water first attaining to the surface but as large a proportion of the water as possible in view of the width of the jet shall reach the surface at positions where the tangent planes make only small angles with the jet direction. Slightly above the level of the rear nozzles 34 each deflecting plate is formed with Aa horizontal segmental diaphragm 44 `below which most of the water from the jets passes.

both sides of the baie plate 24 toward and through the discharge outlets into the sluiceway. When sufficient ash has been removed, or no further ash may be sluiced out, the rear nozzles .34 are brought into operation instead of the front nozzles 33, as a result of which ash resting upon the rear iioor surface 8 is caused to move forwardly toward the discharge outlets.y When sumcient ash has been removed or no further ash may be sluiced out, the water pressure to the rear nozzles 34 is cut off. If necessary, the front nozzles 33 may then be operated a second time. The rod 26 may then be withdrawn and the baiille plate 24 lifted to make possible any desired clinker slicing or hand tool removal of large clinker lumps. Usually ash removal is effected through the outlets in succession.

The amount of ash vfed to the sluiceway through one discharge outlet at one time is limited by the provision of nozzles for each of the two iioor surfaces into which the ash hopper floor is divided and the clearance of ash from the two surfaces in succession in the manner described, and by the baille plates vwhich resist the tendency of ash, by reason of sudden falls of arched ash or otherwise, to avalanche through the discharge outlets. In the operation of the apparatus described, it is found that there is almost complete absence of undesirable splashing onto the hopper wall refractory due to impingement of the jets on the material within the hopper. Impingement of a jet upon a deflecting plate, in the event of no ash being encountered, results in no dangerous splashing because the deflecting plate accepts the Water with little or no shock and moreover the deflecting plate is overhung by the transverse member with its depending flange. The sloping surface 32 reduces the possibility of an accumulation of material adjacent the vfront wall capable of retaining partly embedded therein large pieces of clinker projecting into the jet path in a manner likely to cause splashing.

No nozzle discharges a jet to flow directly out of the hopper through the outlet. The momenta of jets impinging simultaneously upon the two deecting plates are largely dissipated by the opposition of the jets after they are turned toward one another across the discharge outlet.

An operator is able whether the baille plate 24 is in the lowered or raised position, to vmaintain the access door of the casing open in order to observe the progress of ash discharge from the hopper. The diaphragm 44 confines the bulk of the water of the jet to the lowerrnost part of the defiecting plate, so that it retains as long as possible a momentum useful for clearing ash from the space between the deflecting plates.

The described relatively simple floor construction requires less headroom for the hopper than is required by a hopper having at its bottom the forwardly sloping feed plates appropriate for the discharge of ash loosened by rearwardly directed jets. Floor surface raised parts requiredv with the latter kind of hopper, such as extend from the front to the rear wall of the hopper between the feed plates, are inessential with the hopper described, so long as there is no objection to residual ash, not removable by operation of the jets, on the hopper floor at positions such as 45 between the jet paths associated with adjacent discharge outlets.

Having thus described the present invention so that other skilled in the art may be able to understand and practice the same, I state that what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is de-y fined in what is claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom wall and an outlet opening in its lower portion, means comprising a nozzle for delivering a jet of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, and baffle means including a vertical deflecting plate having a concave surface formed about a vertical axis disposed at one side of said outlet opening to intercept said jet and turn it transversely in a horizontal plane toward said outlet.

2. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom wall and an outlet opening in its lowerv portion, means comprising a nozzle for delivering a jet of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, and baffle means including a vertical deecting plate having a concave surface formed about a vertical axis disposed at one side of said outlet opening to intercept said jet and turn it transversely in a horizontal plane toward said outlet, said plate having a segmental diaphragm extending substantially horizontally from said concave surface to confine jet liquid to the lower portion of said surface.

3. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom wall and an outlet opening in its lower portion, means comprising a pair of nozzles for delivering two diverging jets of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, Vand barile means including a pair of vertical delecting plates each having a concave surface formed about a vertical axis, said plates being spaced apart to define said outlet opening and disposed to intercept said jets and turn them transversely -in a horizontal plane toward each other and said outlet.

4. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom wall and an outlet opening in its lower portion, means comprising a plurality of pairs of nozzles for delivering pairs of diverging jets of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, and baille means including vertical deflecting plates each having a concave surface formed about a vertical axis, said plates being disposed apart on opposite sides of said outlet opening to intercept said jets and turn them transversely in a horizontal plane through approximately right angles and toward each other and said outlet.

5. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom wall and an outlet opening in its lower portion, means comprising a nozzle for delivering a jet of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, baffle means including a vertical deecting plate having a concave surface formed about a vertical axis disposed at one side of said outlet opening to intercept said jet and turn it lower portion,

transversely in a horizontal plane toward said outlet, and a member extending transversely of the hopper and overhanging the deflecting plate.

(i. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom wall and an outlet opening in its lower portion, means comprising a nozzle for delivering a jet of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, baille means including a vertical deiiecting plate having a concave surface formed about a vertical axis disposed at one side of said outlet opening to intercept said jet and turn it transversely in a horizontal plane toward said outlet, and a baille plate in the lower portion of the hopper disposedbetween said nozzle and the f outlet opening and extending transversely of said opening.

7. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom Wall and an outlet opening in its means comprising a nozzle for delivering a jet of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, baie means including a vertical deflecting plate having a concave surface formed about a vertical axis disposed at one side of said outlet opening'to intercept said jet and turn it transversely in a horizontal plane toward said outlet, a baille plate between said nozzle and the outlet opening in the lower portion of the hopper and extending transversely across said opening and a member adjacent to said deecting plate extending transversely of the hopper and overhanging said dellecting plate. V

8. In an ash hopper having side and end walls and a bottom wall and an outlet opening in its lower portion, means comprising nozzles for delivering diverging jets of liquid substantially horizontally in the hopper, baiie means including two vertical deflecting plates each having a concave surface formed about a Vertical axis, said plates being spaced apart on opposite sides of said outlet openings to intercept said jets and turn them transversely in a horizontal plane through approximately right angles and toward each otherand said outlet, a baffle plate between said nozzles and the outlet opening in the lower portion of the hopper and extending transversely oi said opening substantially entirely across the opening, and a member adjacent to said deflecting plates extending transversely of the hopper and overhanging said deecting plates.

PHILIP B. SILK.

REFERENCES CETED The following references are of record in the iile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

